Ahead of my upcoming yoga teaching course, starting this weekend, I have been given some preparatory homework: to read and absorb the first few chapters of Donna Farhi's book on breathing {The Breathing Book}. It is a practical textbook guiding you through breathing exercises, or better *inquires*, with the aim of disclosing what she calls the *essential breath*. In the introductory chapter she invites the reader to visualise his/her current breathing pattern with a metaphorical image.
When I saw this illustration, courtesy of my friend's flatmate Russ Street, I thought it illustrated very well my breath's perception. My lungs feel like lungs of a hummingbird, and my shallow breathing like trapped in a cage. In fact, it is not uncommon to hear me *hmmphing* every now and then to release the accumulated air. I know in yoga you should never wish and always observe and accept and be with it, but I hope one day my lungs will open up as this beautiful daylily/gramophone...
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